games

New xbox360 games on different websites:

	Play.com	Amazon
Assassin's Creed II	39.99	35.98
Assassin's Creed II: Black Edition	108.99	-
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2	44.99	40.14
FIFA 10	37.99	29.98
Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City	24.99	17.99
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2	24.99	21.98
PES 2010: Pro Evolution Soccer	34.99	19.99
Tekken 6	29.99	29.99

Lots of good games! Like my friend Hyree mentioned, as students, we used to have lots of time to play games but not enough money to buy them. Now, we have the money but there's not enough time to play them! Haih.

There's an Assassin's Creed II White Edition as well from GAME, currently at £54.99.

There are also more potentially good games coming soon next year like Army Of Two: The 40th Day, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Conviction and Max Payne 3.

If I'm rajin enough, I'll update the price of these games because they do fluctuate. For example, yesterday at Play.com, Pro Evo was £20+ and a few days before that FIFA 10 was £20+ too. I won’t be surprised that by the time you read this, some of the price has changed.

I’ll try to snap one (or more) of them if a very good deal comes across. *smiles*

21 Dec 09 - Updated price and added Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 (don't know why I forgot to put that in before).

28 Dec 09 - Updated price. Don't think I'll buy Modern Warfare 2; I'll just borrow it from my friend Arin. Hehe.

29 Dec 09 - Bought Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City for £17.99 from Amazon.

11 Jan 10 - Bought a new Tekken 6 for £20 from eBay. Yeay! Also, I've played the Army Of Two: The 40th Day demo. It's similar to the first game, but the screen is split right and left instead of top and bottom, which is NOT good for a third-person shooter game. Boo!

wave to google

On Friday night, I opened my email and lo and behold, I had an invitation to preview Google Wave! Never thought I'd received one because I didn't get an invitation when Google first let it out into the world a few weeks ago.

Don't know what the fuss is all about? Well, I'm not gonna explain it to you. Haha. Read about Google Wave here. There's a (really really) long video about it. There's also some stuff written about it in Google's blog here.

Already craving for one? Request an invitation from Google here, or to my friends and family, you can ask me nicely for one. I have a few more invites to give. Taraa for now (wave!).

cobweb

bersawangnya blog ni!

It's been quite a while since I added an entry to this blog. I do have ideas sometimes but just too busy (or too lazy) to construct sentences to release them into the world.

That's all for now. Cheerio!

battlestar galactica is frakkin awesome!

I finished watching the whole series of the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica last week. Yup, that’s right, the WHOLE series of four seasons, plus the pilot miniseries and webisodes.

I must say, the series as a whole is quite amazing. They’ve managed to maintain the continuity and avoid major plot holes. Plus fantastic story telling that keeps you at the edge of your seats. Yes, it is science fiction, but it’s so good that you feel like it’s this great drama that just happens to be a science fiction.

The twists and turns, and the ‘what the frak’ moments are really good. Fyi, ‘frak’ is a substitute used in the series for the f word.

Battlestar Galactica was actually a series back in the late 70’s. It was ‘re-imagined’ which meant that the main concept is still there; of humans fleeing their colonies after being attacked by Cylons (AI’s originally invented by the humans but then evolved and rebelled against them). However, the whole storyline differs from the original series.

I would imagine that the original one was also great in its own right, but I’m sure impressed by the new one, which you guys would probably be able to know by now after reading this post.

Even though the ending still left some mysteries unanswered, I still like it. If I’m crazy enough, I’d probably watch the whole series again. Heh.

So say we all!

ramadhan mubarak!

Bagi menyempurnakan titah perintah Her Majesty The Queen, saya dengan ini mengisytiharkan bahawa tarikh permulaan puasa di United Kingdom jatuh pada:

Hari Sabtu 22 Ogos 2009, bersamaan 1 Ramadhan 1430 Hijrah.

Selamat berpuasa muslimin dan muslimat sekalian!

http://www.iccuk.org/downloads/LMF2009%20Ramadan.pdf

kite runner

I finished reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini more than a week ago. It’s a rather good book. To be honest, it started a bit slow. Usually, when I read a book, it would be difficult for me to stop reading, but with The Kite Runner, that didn’t happen until I got through more than half of the book. I was thinking to myself, hmm.. how come many people seem to like this book, because it wasn’t that interesting to me.

Halfway through however, it got a lot more interesting and towards the end, the pace did seem to be a lot quicker. I even slept late on a couple of weekdays just so that I can read what happens next.

I guess the slow part of the book was important to setup the story. I can’t expect every book I read to be action-packed. Nearer the end, the story seems to be concluding, but they were still many pages left. I thought, oh no.. oh no.. this seems like a good ending.. but the book’s not finished yet.. is something bad gonna happen. Full of suspense. If you wanna know what happens, why don’t you read it? Or if you’re not too bothered, just wiki it.

I even watched the movie version of the book, but it was a bit disappointing. Yes, I can understand that some parts of the book couldn’t be included so that it wouldn’t be too long. However, there were some parts of the movie that didn’t do justice to the intensity of the book. For example, **SPOILERS AHEAD!**, when Amir jan is calling Soraya about the marriage proposal. She was telling him about her past which she wasn’t very proud of and if Amir would still want to marry her now that he knew. When he said yes, I imagined them to be really high with emotions, but the way it was portrayed in the movie.. *sigh*. Nasib baik the actress who played Soraya boleh tahan jugak la cute dia. Hehe.

Oh and the next project is Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

prince of persia

So… I’ve completed my first project. I actually completed the game last week or was that the week before? Well, it’s not important anyway. Before I go on, I need to warn you that this is quite a long post, so if you have no interest in video games whatsoever or if you actually hate them, then just stop reading. That's right, just stop, close this browser, turn off the computer, and go to bed. Now.

Okay, now that we've got rid of those people, let me tell you a brief history of Prince of Persia (PoP). The first PoP was developed by Brøderbund in 1989. It was a 2D game (of course la kan) where the Prince ran and jumped to avoid deadly traps, fought the bad guys with swords and solved puzzles. I think I did play it when I was small, on a DOS computer. That seems to be a long time ago now. In 1994, Brøderbund released PoP 2: The Shadow and the Flame. The Prince marries the daughter of the Sultan of Persia, hence becoming the Prince of Persia. Then in 1999, PoP 3D was released by Red Orb Entertainment. This was the first PoP game that incorporated 3D graphics.

Ubisoft then took over and developed a PoP trilogy (The Sands of Time, Warrior Within, The Two Thrones) much loved by many people. The story is different from the first trilogy. The Prince is actually the prince of Persia (duh!) and he still runs and jumps to avoid traps and fight the bad guys, but this time he’s more acrobatic and the games are all in 3D. The puzzles are really good as well. The main theme of the whole trilogy was about the sands of time, including the implications of altering/slowing/travelling through time. I enjoyed playing them (although I haven’t actually finished playing the third one).

Because I enjoyed playing the trilogy, I was really enthusiastic about the new PoP, which prompted me to buy the PoP Collector’s Edition. The black case is nice but the CD case is just the normal green plastic one, so it was a bit of a disappointment for me. My Gears of War 2 Limited Edition set is much much better, with a metal CD case *big smile*. Ok, back to PoP. Ubisoft released a new PoP game last year, which unlike the previous trilogies doesn’t even mention the words Prince and Persia in the game! The word of is mentioned plenty of time however.

The so-called ‘prince’ is a thief who, while looking for his donkey, gets lost in a sandstorm and meets up with Elika, a princess of a mysterious land. Together, they have to cleanse the land from the ‘corruption’ of the dark god Ahriman. I agree with Hyree that the game is quite easy compared to the Sands of Time trilogy. You’ll see marks on the wall where you’re supposed to jump and the screen becomes pale when you need to call Elika to help you jump. And you can’t even die in the game, which is a good thing I guess, because it will avoid you from being frustated if you just die all the time. The puzzles are simple and easy to solve. I wish they’d be more challenging so that I’ll get that satisfied feeling of completing a difficult puzzle. Also, I miss the running-up-the-wall-and-then-jumping-over-the-opponent-and-then-striking-with-a-sword move from the previous trilogy. But most of the jumping and Elika fight moves are rather cool as well.

Even though it’s ‘consumer friendly’ as mentioned by my good friend Hyree, it was rather enjoyable playing the game, mostly due to its wonderful graphics. It has a water-colour-ish style, but in a 3-dimensional way. And the view after the land is healed is beautiful. There are even Assassin View and Titanic View achievements on the Xbox360. You can also change the skins of the Prince and Elika. The other skins for the Prince are Altaïr from Assassin’s Creed, the Prince from Sands of Time and the prototype Prince, while Elika’s other skins are Farah from Sands of Time, Jade from Beyond Good and Evil and the prototype Elika. Talking about Assassin’s Creed, the trailer of Assassin’s Creed 2 is super cool! Can’t wait to play that later. Oh and don’t ask me about Beyond Good and Evil because I’ve never heard of that game before.

If you want to get Xbox360 achievement points easily, then this is the game to play. You can get at least 700 points by just finishing the game, but you’ll probably get 800+. There are only 4 achievements that I didn’t get (yet?), which are Light Seeds Accumulator, Light Seeds Protector and Light Seeds master, which involve collecting many light seeds, and the Combo Specialist, where I need to have performed all the combos in the game, which I’m not too bothered to do.

In February, a downloadable content (DLC) was released. For those of you who don’t know what a DLC is, it’s just something that the developers of the game make you pay for to play extra hours on an extension to the game. It’s called PoP Epilogue and it continues after the ending of the game. It costs 800 Microsoft points on the Xbox360 which is £6.80 and not something I’d pay to play. So I just youtubed it to know its story. Basically its ending is *SPOILER AHEAD* as bad as the original game, because the developers want to make a sequel to this game so that they can further cash in on our money and I will most probably fall victim to their evil scheme.

All in all, PoP is an enjoyable game and I recommend you to play it, especially if you’re new to gaming. So that’s my first project completed. My side project of sorting out Easter roadtrip photos is also done. I currently have another side project, which is playing Gears of War 2. Why is it a side project? Well, it’s because I only play it on Friday nights with Amir Soldier. It’s not as enjoyable when played alone. Now, my next main project will be…

Reading The Kite Runner!

my projects

Nope, I’m not gonna write about projects at work, or the ones at uni for that matter. It’s a little bit different. Since I have some spare time and I’ve also bought stuff but haven’t used them yet or rarely used them, I decided that I’m going to commit to certain projects in my life.

nope, not this type of project

What is a project? From the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a project is a specific plan or design, similar to a scheme. And what is a scheme? It’s a plan of program of action. Both of them have plan in them. So what is a plan? It’s just a method for achieving an end, or a detailed program. Okay, I think I should stop giving endless meanings of words now.

Basically, by having a project or a few projects, I’ll keep myself occupied and not get bored. So, if I suddenly don’t know what to do, I can just continue with one of my projects. You can also think of it as a to-do list, but that’s a bit boring isn’t it? I’ll have this and that to do, then after doing them, I’ll just tick some boxes indicating that they’re done. However, for a project, I’ll ideally put more effort into doing something, no matter what it is.

Okay, enough gibberish. So my first project will be… wait for it… wait for it… playing the Prince of Persia. You may disagree with me and laugh this project off, or belittle my enthusiasm for these projects of mine. If so…

Pedulik hapa aku.

prince of persia, with its wonderful water-colour-ish animation

Anyway, one of the reasons I thought about this project thing is that I’ve actually bought the game in November or December last year but had only started really playing it a couple of weeks ago. That’s a long time isn’t it. I guess I was preoccupied with other stuff.

Also, it’s something that I enjoy doing, so I think it’s rather a cool project to commit myself to. And I do a little bit of research as well on how to get certain achievements in the game so that I’ll certainly maximise the time spent on playing the game. If you’re thinking ‘Ak ela, semangat gila mamat nih,’ then please refer to the quotation above the Prince of Persia picture.

Another project that I’m currently doing is to sort out the photos from my Easter roadtrip. I went to Bath, Bristol, Tintagel Castle, Lands End, Eden Project and Stonehenge with some friends a month ago and I still haven’t sorted out all the photos from other people’s cameras. We went to a lot of places so you can imagine how many photos there are, hence many unnecessary photos will have to be deleted.

us at tintagel castle, cornwall

Other projects in the backlog, in no particular order, are as follows:

1. Read The Kite Runner (which I bought last summer)
2. Read The Heirs of the Prophet Muhammad (which was also bought last summer)
3. Play Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (which was bought last year)
4. Play Kungfu Panda (hmm.. I seem to have bought a lot of stuff last year)
5. Study some engineering stuff related to work
6. Study history (interesting ones of course)
7. Read and understand the tafsir
8. Watch every f1 race this season if possible
   
9. Cook stuff from the recipe books that I also bought last year
10. Go back home for Raya!
11. Go travelling somewhere
12. Movie or series marathon?
    
13. More exercises and workout maybe?
14. Learn a new skill and/or polish up existing ones
15. Volunteering

See, it’s not just fun and games. You need to develop your skills not only at work but also for yourself, your life. I won’t need to draw up Gantt charts for my projects or do proper and detailed planning, but I’ll have things to do that I hopefully will enjoy. Oh there’s a Batman: Arkham Asylum game coming out and I am so gonna play it, so that should be on my project list I guess. If you’re thinking ‘Geek gila mamat nih,’ again, please refer to the quotation somewhere in the middle of this post..!

proton exora

The latest Proton car has been launched today. It’s Proton’s first MPV, the Exora and it looks quite good too don’t you think. It’s much much better than that horrible Juara.

The name Exora is derived from Ixora, a flower commonly seen in most bushes or shrubbery around Malaysia. It’s called bunga jarum-jarum if I’m not mistaken.

The Exora is built on a newly developed platform, and it’s the second platform (ever) developed by Proton, so it is something to be proud of, I guess, for a Malaysian.

The new MPV is powered by a 1.6-litre CamPro CPS engine with 125bhp and torque of 150Nm, with prices below RM80k. Apa lagi, kalau ada duit tu, pegi la beli! Heh.

And woohoo! Man Utd just won 1-0 against Porto FC in the Champions League second leg quarter-final. Yeayeah, we’re through to the semi-final against Arsenal. Yeah I know, very off-topic but who cares.

f1 red flag at sepang

What an exciting Formula 1 race in Sepang today. Too bad the rain forced the race to stop before all 56 laps were completed. The race started at 5pm Malaysian time, which is 3 hours later than usual. I assume some ‘clever’ guy at the top wants the Malaysian Grand Prix to start later so that the people in Europe don’t need to wake up that much earlier than usual. Heh.

The inconsistent weather forecasts made the race much more exciting. The teams were contemplating when they would need to change tyres to suit the weather and what type of tyres they need to change to. And when the weather did change, they were a lot of teams going into the pit-stop to change tyres, so the standings keep changing and changing. Hmm I noticed that I've written 'changing' and 'tyres' quite a lot in this paragraph. Won't get much marks then if this were to be an essay to be submitted. Who cares anyway. They were a lot of overtakings as well of course, besides the tyre changing.

But at the end of the day, the rain poured too heavily so they had to show the red flag, which means that the race had to be suspended and the cars had to line up behind the red flag line and wait until it’s safe to race again. It was actually dangerous for the cars to race in that condition. They were a lot of cars spinning at the corners already (which I secretly think is indeed a little bit fun to watch but is actually dangerous for the safety of the drivers, so let's just pretend I didn't think that ok).

Since it was getting too dark, and the 2-hour racing period was nearly over, the race wasn’t resumed and they used the standings at Lap 31 to determine the official race standings. However, the drivers (and constructors) only get half points because they didn’t complete more than 3 quarters of the race. Well, half points are better than no points at all.

And the winner of the Malaysian GP was Jenson Button from the Brawn team, his second win of the season. Looks like the Brawn team are doing very well. The Ferrari and McLaren teams seem to be struggling to adapt to the new rules. McLaren only has 1 point and Ferrari don’t have any points yet! Looking forward to the rest of the season. It’s gonna be very exciting, close, and fun to watch!

new logo, new pm, new/old tax haven (?)

The foundation for the open source mobile software platform now has a new logo:

It’s supposed to be a software company/foundation, but the logo doesn’t represent that at all. It looks like some toys company or something. Well maybe mobile phones are toys to some people, *shrug*. Anyway, it doesn’t look professional to me. Good thing I’m not working there (anymore?). Go to their website to find out more, or just go straight to the foundation’s blog for informal-ish kind of updates. There should be an explanation somewhere in there explaining the beautifully-challenged logo.

*******

So we now have a new prime minister in Malaysia, and it seems that lots of people hate him. I guess I should also say a lot of people like him as well. I should, but maybe I don't want to, but I just did, but hmm... too many but's already. Maybe he’s not the best choice, but maybe he’ll be better than that previous one. Ish... too many maybe's la pulak. Oh well. I just hope that they concentrate on reviving the economy instead of playing stupid, childish politics. Good luck on your new job because you’ll sure be needing it, my dear sir!

*******

I read in the news today that Malaysia is one of four countries blacklisted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for not agreeing with tax standards. One in four. Wow. And it’s not everyday that Malaysia goes in the news here. My beloved country is apparently a tax haven. Hmm better stash away money there ASAP. Oh yeah, now I remember, I don’t have that much money to stash anyway, *blaargghhh*.

*******

earth hour

Yes, it's as simple as what the poster says. It doesn't matter which country you're in, it's the planet you're in which matters. On Saturday 28th March, switch off your lights for 1 hour from 8.30 to 9.30 (local time) to vote for Earth. Leaving your lights switched on means a vote for global warming.

Yeh, maybe it won't make a major difference, but every little helps!

Visit earthhour.org for more info.

Come people, let's switch our lights off!

fauwaz

It has been 3 years now. Had it not happened, you would be studying for your SPM now, or maybe still relaxing. I'm sure you would have performed well anyway. And you would have already aced your PMR too.

Sorry I wasn't there for you. It really pained me not to be able to visit you when you were ill. I couldn't afford to then.

Anyway, here's to you, Fauwaz. Rest in peace, little bro, rest in peace...

happy maulidurrasul!

The great prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was born today, the 12th of Rabiul Awal in the Year of the Elephant (direct translation of Tahun Gajah?). In Malaysia, there'll be marches and talks to celebrate, but not (much) here in the UK.

The good news is there's gonna be a Maulid Nabi ceremony/celebration at MSD on Thursday. Details below:

             Date: 12 March 2009
             Time: 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm
             Place: Malaysia Hall

Please do come, and bring your friends along. And of course there'll be food insyaAllah. Yeh that's what I'm talkin' about. =)

Allahumma salli 'ala saiyidina Muhammad.
Wa 'ala ali saiyidina Muhammad.

recycle

We produce a lot of waste and some of them can be recycled or reused, but not many people bother to do it or even think about it. There are also those who want to recycle, but don't know or aren't sure what they can do or where to throw recyclable waste.

Firstly, just separate the stuff you want to recycle in a different bag. It depends on your local authority if you need to separate the materials or not. For me here, it's easy. I just have to put all recyclable waste in one bag because there is a recycling bin outside my flat which is for everything, so I don't need to sort them out myself.

However, there are certain things that you must remember (and do) before you recycle:

1. Empty and rinse off cans, bottles, and plastic containers.
Food waste and liquid remaining in the containers will contaminate the recyclables. If there is contamination, the whole batch of recyclables will not be recycled. Not only will your recycling effort be wasted, others whose waste are in the same batch as yours will be too. Now you don't need to wash them with dishwashing liquid, you just need to rinse them with tap water.

2. Don't recycle paper with grease or food waste on them.
This is also contaminated waste. Unfortunately, there is nothing to be done except to throw them away. *Sob*.

3. Crush cans and squeeze bottles to expel as much air as possible.

4. Remove caps and lids from plastic containers.
Also remove paper clips, staples and plastic envelope windows from paper.

More recycling etiquette can be found here.

Bear in mind that these are the general 'rules' applicable in the UK. It may be slightly different elsewhere. More information can be found in the Recycle Now website, or you could just google it. Don't forget to recycle, folks!

the rescue

We had located where the bad guys took my brother. My two friends created a diversion while I went to save him. He looked tired so I carried him away. Even though I had the ability to run at superspeed, I didn't want to show it to the bad guys so that they won't bother my family anymore. I just ran, not too fast so that they don't know my ability, but not too slow either.

The diversion only distracted them for a while. They saw us running away and immediately chased us. We ran into the woods. I went a different path from those two friends of mine in the hope that I can bring my brother to safety. When we got out of the woods, I thought we had lost them, so I went home. My family was very happy to see us and very glad that my brother was rescued.

Suddenly there were noises outside. Damn it, those bad guys followed us! I was very very angry. I told them to get the hell out of our lives. They wouldn't listen. I could've just used my superstrength to beat them all up, but that would just blow my cover. Instead, I just pushed them back into their car and shouted at them.

Since they wouldn't listen, I had to use my powers. I pushed their car away, pretending that I was exerting all my strength to do so. Another friend came by and he lit a fire and threw it onto the car. I used my heat vision to make the fire spread faster.

The bad guys were now very scared. They promised to never bother my family again and drove their burning car away, out of sight. I thanked my friend and went home to see my brother.

*****************

What drove me mad was that the brother that they kidnapped was the one who died nearly three years ago. Rest in peace, bro! Anyway, it was really cool to have superspeed and superstrength, plus the heat vision. Hmm.. I should've tried flying too. Oh well.

i couldn't believe it actually snowed heavily in central london!

Yes, that's right. It snowed! In central London! This was the most snow I've seen since I've been living in London. It wasn't sleet or the overnight-only snow, but actual long-lasting snow! I'm not sure if that's the correct term to use but I don't care, because it was a lot of snow bebeh. Actually, it was the heaviest snowfall in UK for nearly two decades. Usually when the weather forecast says it's going snow, it actually doesn't, so I didn't have my hopes up when it was forecasted to snow on Sunday night (1st Feb).

wah, all white (i'm not just talking about the roads and cars)

Lo and behold, it actually did snow that night. Quite a lot too, for central London. It was a good thing we went to Satay House for dinner. After eating, it was still snowing outside and since the road outside wasn't busy, we were able to have a good snowfight on the roads, getting our white ammo from the parked cars.

Okay, I thought, let's enjoy the snow now because there won't be any tomorrow. And I'm very glad that I was wrong.

view from my window on monday morning

The next morning, everything was white! Woohoo! I checked the TFL website and found that all the buses were cancelled and most of the tubes were suspended or experiencing delays. I couldn't get to work and couldn't do any work from home. There was nothing else that I could do, but to go to Hyde Park (*smirk*).

the snowman family (cue the adams family tune)

The snow was a few inches deep. I had never seen this much snow in London before and was very glad that I stayed here. The Queens House ladies had already built a snowman with kids when I arrived. I just helped them to build a mini-wall around the snowfamily. Oh and I also helped them 'whiten' their clothes (*another smirk*). By noon, the other final-year students (plus one sesat penultimate-year student of course) had joined us there.

man down, may he rest in peace

The snowfights were fun, but unfortunately one had fallen, all covered in snow. I never thought I could really be in a picture like that. Hehe. How I wish heavy snow would fall again, but that's unlikely, so now I'll revert to that pessimistic view of the weather forecast again. What's that you say, it's predicted to snow next weekend? Lies, all lies!

hypocrisy

When PKR wanted to form the government via 'ship-jumping', it's okay for them, but BN said it was wrong to do so.

However, when BN is the one who formed the new state executive council for Perak, it's suddenly the other way round. BN is oh-so-happy with the situation and PKR is saying it's an abuse of the people's votes.

Such hypocrisy from both sides. Why aren't you guys concentrating on the economy and the people's welfare?! There's a credit crunch for goodness sake!

Note that when I say BN and PKR, I am referring to the politicians and supporters in general. Though I don't usually like generalising, I just cannot help it this time!

bowl swing

Some people are just inconsiderate. Always thinking about themselves only. Well, maybe not always. But it's goddamn annoying. After wasting more than an hour of my time trying to find the best date and seats for everyone, I've somehow been blocked from the bloody ticketmaster website!

On a different note, I've had a haircut today. It's the first one that I've had at a proper barber's in the UK. Before this, my barbers were Helmi and Hanep. Thanks guys.

nokia tube is out

The Nokia 5800 is finally out in the UK. It was launched at Nokia's flagship store in Regent Street. Many crazy people queued hours before the store opened just to be one of the first ones to buy the phone in the UK.

nokia 5800 xpressmusic

Yes, ladies and gentleman, it's a touchscreen phone. Everyone wants to compete with the iPhone now and the 5800 is a worthy contender. Cool phone bebeh!

you's all can, yes?

With all the 'yes we can' and 'change we can believe in', let us hope that the 44th President of the United States live up to expectations. Of course we can't expect everything to happen overnight, but how Obama organised his team throughout the elections and also after he had become the President-elect shows a man who has a plan and knows what he is going to do.

I guess the most important agenda for him right now is the economy, but I think the Gaza issue must be given similar importance as well. Obama didn't comment much on that matter using the excuse that there is only one president at a time, but now that he is president, he should send a clear message on what America's stand is. Are they supporters of the Israel terrorists or against them? Are they as merciless as these terrible zionists or is their message of peace truly sincere?

Hopefully we'll see the changes that people had believed in.

Great speech by the way.

The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.

Oh and watch this till the end. Lol.

more the wiser

All smile to the camera. =)

happy january

I haven't updated this blog for ages now. It's not that I have been very busy with work, but it seems that my life has been full of activities these past few weeks, which is of course good because it shows that I have a life after all. Woohoo! Oops, I wouldn't want to celebrate too soon lest I become very occupied with challenging projects at work.

So the last couple of weeks of 2008 were spent with my family. My parents and 3 smallest brothers were here on holiday. Well I guess I can't call one of them small anymore. Fauzan has grown much much taller since I last saw him and his voice has gone a bit deeper. It won't be long before he outgrows his Abang Long. Faizuddin is his usual cheeky self and Faiq is becoming a very cute 3-year old. Yeah, I had a good time with them.

Faiq became easily tired after a walk outside (of course he did, he's just 3 years old!). So while we were sightseeing in Southend, which was where my parents did their A-Levels, they bought a stroller from a second-hand shop. He really liked the stroller and liked to sleep in it too, and Faizuddin also had fun pushing the stroller. My parents didn't bring the stroller back to Malaysia, so now I have a stroller in my flat. Whoever wants to borrow it, just let me know ok.

Then came the hanging out with friends who are still in uni. It was a very pleasant coincidence that I had the day off when they suddenly felt like going bowling and skating. So I joined them. In just one day, we bowled, ate waffles and went skating. During bowling we were separated into 2 lanes and the team who lost had to belanja the winning team. Even though we had a poor start and were conspired against by the pins machine thingy, we (Ahmad, Bone, Nina and I) eventually won. Terima kasih ye belanja, Baya, Aida, Yaa and Belle. Skating was fun too albeit the sakit2 kaki due to the very hard skates. And we also had dinner at Tinseltown the next day.

At New Year's Eve, I thought I wanted to go see the fireworks but it was freezing cold outside, so I invited some friends over for makan2 and maybe you could call it a house-warming session. In theory, the view from my flat which is on the tenth floor faces London Eye directly so we should be able to see the fireworks. However, there's this one building which obstructs the nice view so we could only see the skies being lit up slightly and some few sparks which managed to avoid that fireworks-view-spoiler building. I do apologize to my guests for this. By next year, I will make sure that building won't be there anymore. Muahaha. Well, at least the TV was on that night.

And then I turned 24. Yeayeah. Thanks for the surprise party, girls and guys! I really appreciate the effort. The spaghetti carbonera and karipap were delicious, not forgetting the Chicken Cottage and profi'telos'. And thank you very much for the cards and presents. I like them all. I was actually thinking of writing some wise words because, you know, I am a bit older. Nah... malas la. Hehehe. Anyway, it was a great birthday for me. Plus, playing Cranium at the weekend was very enjoyable too. Like the game said, you'll never believe what your friends are capable of doing. Great fun!

On another note, the strikes by Israel on Gaza are really really saddening. They say that they are reacting due to the attacks by Hamas, but to take it out on such a huge scale without any mercy is inhumane. For goodness sake, those children and innocent people are helpless! Nothing good will come out of this. They'll just incite hatred towards them especially from the Muslim community. How despicable! I do pray that the days to come will bring peace to the victims in Gaza and to all those facing injustice in this world...